At the Nebraska State Dairy Convention in Columbus last week, dairy producers around the state gathered for what was an optimistic meeting. Over the past few years, dairy producers in the state have felt that the state’s industry has been on the verge of growth. That feeling continues because of Nebraska’s abundant resources and feed and because dairy farmers are looking optimistically to their future.

THE GOOD STUFF

But there are other reasons dairy producers should be looking to a brighter future. Last fall, butter replaced margarine at 14,300 McDonald’s restaurants across the country. This move caused a great stir among the nutrition community, but it was not that unexpected. A growing body of research is showing something our grandparents knew. We need dairy in our diets.

Sound research coupled with important partnerships forged between the dairy industry and food giants like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s are now paying dividends with a wider acceptance and even promotion of the nutritional value of real dairy products, including butter.

Research has opened the doors to a big change in the dialogue about all dairy foods because dairy provides a basis for a healthy diet pattern. Science is starting to understand the role of fat in our diets and how all fats are not created equally when it comes to health.

According to the National Dairy Council, recent studies have even shown that full-fat dairy, including whole milk and milk products, when included in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or DASH healthy eating plan with reduced dietary sugars, can improve cardiovascular risk factors similar to the traditional DASH diet. In fact, research now shows that full-fat dairy products may have additional benefits beyond the traditional DASH diet, benefiting blood pressure and triglycerides, without adversely impacting HDL or LDL cholesterol numbers.

Mickey Rubin, PH. D., writes on the NDC website that a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looks at dairy consumption and weight management, touting some promising results for dairy, and especially for full-fat dairy.

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The authors of the study, according to Rubin, concluded that higher total dairy intake was associated with less weight gain in this study, and the findings seemed to be driven by high-fat dairy intake. If more studies back up these findings, it will revolutionize how we look at dairy products in our diets, and especially how we look at the good stuff, whole milk and full-fat dairy products.

Having grown up on a dairy farm and helping in the milk barn as a kid, I grew up on whole milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, cottage cheese and all the good stuff that my parents and grandparents appreciated as part of our nutritious farm diets. Thank goodness the experts are finally catching up to what we already knew.

Be sure to follow the latest dairy news in Nebraska Farmer online and on our Facebook page. You can follow me on Twitter @HuskerHomePlace #NebFarmNow.

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